


What A Merry Band Are We

by LiterallyThePresident



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 05:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9973409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident
Summary: "You were one of the best soldiers in the Union, I hear.""66th division in Kansas territory." Kanan said, "What about it?""You've heard of Empire, yeah?" she said, "The railroad company?""Oh, I've heard of them." Kanan couldn't help the scorn in his voice, "Greedy cowards who only care about money and ruin lives in their quest to get it. Not exactly a favored subject when talking to beautiful women.""I'm of a mind to take them down a peg or two," Hera said, growing slightly more confident now that she knew her hatred was shared, "And I'd like your help."





	

Kanan Jarrus's life changed forever on a warm summer night in July of 1868.

It all started in a sleepy town in Indiana, when he tried to pet the copper horse. It had shrieked like a creature possessed and bucked wildly, eyes rolling and shining with rage. It would have bitten his hand off had he not thrown himself away from the fence with a very unmanly yelp.

"Tried to touch Chopper, huh?" came a very pretty voice, making Kanan jump, "How'd that work out for you?" He turned to meet the speaker and had to resist the urge to whistle. The voice belonged to a black woman that couldn't have been much older than he was. She had long black hair tied back and startling green eyes, a smattering of freckles across her lovely face. Her muscular arms and weathered clothing told him she was used to a life on the go. Her holstered guns told him she was not a woman to be trifled with. Her psychotic horse told him she would take no shit.

He was immediately attracted to her.

"What's a lovely lady like you doing in a town like this?" Kanan asked casually as he scooted away from the angry horse as dignified as he could manage, "You strike me as a woman who likes to be on the move."

"I was actually looking for you, Mr. Jarrus." she responded coolly, "I'm Hera Syndulla. Can I have a word?"

"Miss Syndulla, I must ask, why on Earth is your horse so aggressive?" Kanan leaned casually against the wall of a nearby stable, keeping a wary eye on the cursed horse apparently named Chopper.

"I'm a black woman on my own, good sir," she said flatly, "I ain't got a lot of options, and someone has to watch my back."

"That... makes an unfortunate amount of sense." Kanan conceded, "So what did you need to ask me? Heard tale of my prowess in the sheets and come to see if the rumors are true?"

"I'm more in need of your prowess with a gun." she corrected, as though there wasn't a slight blush coloring her face, "You were one of the best soldiers in the Union, I hear."

"66th division in Kansas territory." Kanan said, "What about it?"

"You've heard of Empire, yeah?" she said, "The railroad company?"

"Oh, I've heard of them." Kanan couldn't help the scorn in his voice, "Greedy cowards who only care about money and ruin lives in their quest to get it. Not exactly a favored subject when talking to beautiful women."

"I'm of a mind to take them down a peg or two," Hera said, growing slightly more confident now that she knew her hatred was shared, "And I'd like your help."

"Why me?" Kanan asked curiously, "I ain't been doing much besides drinking since the war ended."

"I noticed." Hera sniffed, "And I think we can help each other. I get an ally, you get a purpose."

"Oh?" Kanan asked, "And here I was hoping we could offer each other another kind of help" He made a show of glancing down at her chest, a grin tugging at his face when her fists clenched at her sides. He really liked this woman. She had a fire, a strength that made him want all her attention. But he knew it was best to distract her from himself just this once before she decided he wasn't worth it and shot him in the face.

"So any particular reason for this vendetta against Empire, or is it just basic human decency?" he asked. It seemed to work, as the anger in her face shifted to something else, something more than fury.

"Empire is corrupt to the bones," Hera said darkly, not quite answering his question, "and I'm gonna gather as many people as I need to fight it."

"And you decided to a washed up soldier fit your quota?" Kanan asked, eyes dancing. Her own eyes narrowed, as if his playful ignorance and flirting irritated her. Imagine.

"You fought in the war, you've seen battle. You have experience, talent, and skill. Will you join me, or should I leave you to your solitude?" Her eyes were a gorgeous shade of green, like his mother's favorite dress. Kanan thought about her offer for exactly six seconds.

"Ah, what the hell, I'm going nowhere fast." he said, pushing off from the wall to stand straight, "What's our next move?" If Hera was impressed by his very heroic and selfless decision, she didn't show it. She turned and walked back to the horse corral without a word, clearly expecting him to follow. He did, of course. He got the feeling he'd be following her for a while. Oddly enough, he found he didn't mind all that much. It was a nice view, at least.

"I have a few people I'd like to nab for our cause." Hera began to saddle up her Chopper, "First up, we're heading to Missouri."

"Missouri?" Kanan asked, swinging a leg around his own horse, "What's there?"

"A bounty hunter." was her response as she shook the reigns, signaling to Chopper that it was time to go. Kanan noticed he obeyed her without protest, though he could swear the horse was giving him the evil eye, "Garazeb Orrelios, the most effective lawman in the country as far as most outlaws are concerned."

"Is that the best idea?" Kanan asked, spurring his own horse to ride alongside her, "How do we know he's the real deal?"

"Right now I'm just going on tales and rumors, just like I did with you." Hera informed him, "If he doesn't measure up, we drop him and head for the next prospective ally." They rode out of the shoddy town, and the night seemed more welcoming now that he had a companion.

"I can't help but feel like my life has changed for the better." Kanan said cheekily, giving her his most flirtatious wink. She rolled her eyes and spurred her horse to ride ahead, but not before Kanan saw the flush climbing her cheeks.

Oh yeah, this was going to be one hell of a ride.

\---

They found Garazeb Orrelios one month later, in a bar just on the outskirts of Missouri. He sat in a back corner where he could see everything going on, and his striking green eyes immediately darted to them when they entered.

"What's a Mexican doing out in these parts?" was the first thing out of his mouth when they approached him. His accent was foreign, Kanan was guessing Australian. The novelty didn't stop the flare of offense he felt at the remark.

"I'm not Mexican." Kanan said, utterly unimpressed, "And at least I haven't gone prematurely gray." Hera glanced at him, the look he'd come to recognize as a warning to relax.

"Sorry for the assumption." Orrelios shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the jab, his posture deceptively casual even as those bright green eyes observed them, checking for weaknesses and tells, "I heard you were looking for me."

"We have a job offer for you." Hera said, not bothering to ask before dropping into a seat across from him, "It's sort of a long term assignment."

"I'm all ears, lady." Orrelios leaned back in his chair, staring them down. The display probably scared off many a weaker man, but very few things could cow Hera Syndulla. It was one of the things Kanan had come to love about her in the month they'd spent getting to know each other.

"We have a goal, to take down a huge and corrupt railroad company." Hera pressed on, "I presume you know of Empire?"

"Those bastards?" Orrelios' fingers tightened on his glass for just a split second, "Hard not to know about them when they're burning down towns left and right."

"We're planning on destroying them." Hera declared. Zeb shifted to look her straight in the eye.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life." he said. Kanan couldn't help but admire his honesty.

"Mr. Orrelios-" Hera started, but Orrelios interrupted with a wave of his hand.

"You can call me Zeb. Everyone does."

"...Zeb. We'd like to have you along on this here mission of ours. We could use your talents and expertise, and something tells me you could use the excitement."

"The whole thing sounds like a fool's errand." Zeb said, kicking back his drink, "Is the pay good?"

"Nope." Kanan replied.

"Any chance of success?"

"We'll likely be dead by this time next year." Kanan couldn't quite hide the twinkle in his eyes. Zeb gave them a grin far too gleeful to be friendly and waved to the bartender for another round.

"Sounds like history being made. Count me in."

\---

Zeb settled in nicely, and they spent a few days getting used to each other before Hera called them together to discuss their next move.

"There's a woman out in Nebraska territory, two days ride from here." Hera said, "She'd be invaluable."

"Who is she?" Kanan asked, "Let me guess, an acrobat? No wait, an assassin? A politician?"

"A homesteader." Hera answered.

"Not quite as exciting I was expecting." Kanan sighed, "Why a homesteader?"

"She's incredible with a gun, can charm a man out of the shirt on his back, has the quickest mind I have ever encountered, and she's _really_ good with her hands." Kanan didn't like the tone of her voice when she said that last part. It was exactly the tone Kanan used when he was remembering a particular talented bed partner.

"Wait..." Kanan said slowly, "Are you and this woman...?"

"Not... quite?" Hera admitted, the inflection in her voice making the last part more of a question, "It was a few years ago, before I met you."

"Hera." Kanan said flatly, arms crossed.

"It was one time, Kanan." Hera rolled her eyes, "One or... two times. Give or take."

"Give or take?" he demanded.

"I don't have to explain my past trysts to you, Kanan." Hera said ever so sweetly. Zeb was snickering at Kanan's transparent jealousy.

"So we're off to collect your ex. Great. That's fine. That doesn't sting at all." Kanan grumbled. Hera sighed, and Zeb just kept laughing at him.

"So what's this mystery woman's name?" Kanan asked with a scowl. Hera rolled her eyes for the untempth time.

"Her name's Mira Bridger."

\---

It was nighttime, just one day's ride to the prairie town of Lothal, when Kanan was roused from his sleep by an alarmed whinny from Chopper. He sat up, guns practically jumping to his hands, and came face to face with a pair of twin pistols aimed right at his eyes.

"Hands up," the perpetrator said cheerfully, "Guns where I can see them."

Kanan reluctantly obeyed, not daring to stand. He noticed Hera out of the corner of his eye, weaponless and furious. Zeb was still out scouting ahead, and Kanan cursed himself for insisting it was fine.

"Don't lay a hand on him." Hera snapped when the robber's guns came too close to Kanan for her liking. Kanan tried to signal with his eyes that he was alright, hoping she could see it in the dim light of the dying fire.

"I don't want to hurt you guys," the attacker said, "So long as you comply." Kanan finally noticed with no small amount of surprise that their attacker was a young girl, not more than seventeen. Her dark hair was cut very short, and she had the distinctive eyes of an oriental, as well as a dark pink bandana wrapped around the lower half of her face. Her outfit was simple but _colorful_ , a strange mish-mash of colors and material that seemed to dare anyone to say a word about it.

And she obviously knew how to use her guns. Kanan recognized the confident posture, the ease of her grip and the lack of tremor in her hands.

"What do you need?" Kanan asked casually, as if there wasn't a robbery in progress. Chopper whinnied angrily as if to say _What are you doing you damn idiot!?_

"Just the usual," the girl replied, bandana slightly muffling her words, "Money, valuables, maybe a horse, what have you."

"How much will all this this last you?" Hera asked quietly, her own hands in the air, her fury simmering down to something else as she really looked at the girl. The girl shrugged, and when she spoke it sounded an awful lot like she was grinning.

"Long enough for me to find the next pair of idiots." was her response. She made her way over to their saddlebags, keeping her guns up, "These are nice. I'll take them."

"You like this life?" Hera asked honestly, "Scrounging for a meal, living off the desert with no one to rely on?"

"I adore it." Kanan couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. Hera's eyes steeled, and Kanan knew she had a plan.

"I've got a proposition for you, if you're of a mind to listen." Hera said. The girl stopped what she was doing, eyeing Hera curiously, her pistols still trained on Kanan.

"People offer a lot when they've got a gun on them, usually things they can't provide." she said, "You saying you're different?"

"My name is Hera, this is Kanan. We're taking on Empire," Hera explained cautiously, "and frankly, miss, you seem like the kind of gal we want on our side." The girl had frozen at the company's name, and Kanan knew she'd made the right choice in bringing it up.

"You're gunning for Empire?" the girl asked, not lowering her guns even as her eyes lit up with interest.

"Hard." Hera said, "We've already stopped several of their operations up in Indiana territory. I'm guessing you ain't their biggest fan?"

"I used to work for them." her lip curled in disgust, "If you could call it work. Slave labor, more like."

Kanan and Hera shot each other a look, agreeing without words that this girl was too young to have been subjected to that.

"We're planning on seeing them wiped from the face of the Earth." Hera said, lowering her hands in a show of trust, "And we's be happy to have another hand along. Pay's not great, we'll meet a lotta dangerous types, and the road ain't a comfortable place. You in?"

There was a beat of contemplative silence. And then;

"Mister and Missus Hera, I think we're gonna get along just fine." the girl grinned, finally lowering her guns. Kanan and Hera had long stopped correcting people who assumed they were married, so they let the comment go. The girl finally holstered her guns, trotting over and settling down on a flat boulder just within the fire's light, helping herself to a drink from Kanan's flask. She kicked her feet up and made herself right at home.

"Sabine Wren." she said by way of introduction, "Where are we headed?"

\---

Mira Bridger was a lot shorter than they anticipated. And angrier. And a bit more male.

They'd ridden into the tiny prairie town around midday, smiling and nodding at the gawking children and suspicious townsfolk. They'd rested by the saloon, Kanan smiling charmingly at passers by to make up for Zeb and Sabine's loud banter while Hera asked the barkeep where they could find Bridger.

"She's on her way." Hera told them when she emerged from the saloon, and they settled down on the porch to wait. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long before they were approached. However, instead of a woman, a kid trotted up to them, dark haired and glaring. Kanan could tell Hera was surprised as the kid approached them.

"Who's the kid?" Zeb asked suspiciously. 

The kid was watching them with those dark blue eyes, and Zeb was clearly unnerved by them of his uncomfortable shifting was any indication.

"Who are you?" Hera's voice raised above theirs, her eyes soft on the kid.

"You asked for Bridger, here I am." the boy shrugged. Kanan shot her a confused look, she simply shrugged in response.

"We were actually looking for Mira Bridger, Hera said, "Can you tell us where she is?"

"Why are you looking for my mom?" the boy asked suspiciously. Hera blinked slowly, and Kanan felt a petty surge of relief and satisfaction.

"She married?" Hera asked, "She had a child? That's... That's _wonderful_. I'm so happy for her." and she did sound genuinely pleased. Kanan felt some of the tension in his chest loosen at her happiness, only for it to come right back at the stormy look on the boy's face.

"Where are your parents, son?" Kanan asked, already knowing the answer. The boy's shoulders hunched, his voice was dark when he responded.

"Dead." He didn't quite meet their eyes, staring intensely at a spot just over Hera's shoulder. Hera gasped, a hand coming to her mouth.

"Mira?" she asked, voice trembling. The boy flinched, barely perceptible, but it was all the answer they needed.

"What happened?" Sabine asked when Hera didn't.

"It was the bastards at Empire," the boy all but spat, "My parents wouldn't be cowed by them, so they were killed." There was a rage in his eyes, one Kanan recognized. He'd seen it a thousand times in the soldiers on the opposite side of the war, in the prisoners they took, in Hera. Sabine winced in sympathy at the kid's words. Hera had a strange look on her face. Kanan opened his mouth to give her time to collect herself.

"What do you do here?" he asked, feeling oddly paternal, "A kid shouldn't be all alone in a town like this."

"I stay outta the way." the kid said bitterly, "Earn money with card tricks and wait until I'm old enough to strike out on my own. Hey, what's the deal with the ugly guy?" he jerked his head at Zeb. Zeb's hand twitched towards his holster, but the kid smiled a smug little smile. Before anyone could question the expression, the kid showed his hands, revealing Zeb's guns. He'd taken them off Zeb's person without any of them noticing.

"How did you do that?" Kanan asked in amazement, speaking over Zeb's outraged yelling. The kid shook a finger, still smiling.

"Dad always said a magician never reveals his tricks." he chided. Kanan let out a hearty laugh, ignoring Zeb snatching his guns from Ezra's hands.

"I dare say I like this kid." Kanan smiled, "Can we keep him?" Ezra smiled up at him then, a small spark of hope in his eyes.

"You'd let me come with you, leave here with you?" he asked, "Would you really?"

Kanan felt something slot into place, like their group had been wholly incomplete until now and they hadn't even realized it.

"We'd be honored." Hera replied before he could, and he could tell she meant it.

They rode out at sunset, the town slowly fading into the horizon, Ezra riding with Zeb despite the man's protests.

"Well, what a merry band are we." Kanan commented idly, "Myself, an ex soldier. Our fearless leader with a scary horse, our very own sharpshooting ex bandita, a kid magician with a chip on his shoulder, and a bounty hunting Aussie with a shadowed past."

"We certainly do make quite a sight." Ezra agreed, "I dare say we'll take the Frontier by storm."

"I'll drink to that." Zeb chuckled, taking a small swig from his flask. They rode across the plains, the dying sun at their backs and the warmth of a not-quite-yet family saturating the air between them.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried for accuracy. I may write more if this so I'm just gonna set it as a series for now. Let me know what you guys think and how I can improve :)


End file.
